On April 29, National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the student movement with chapters around the US that are taking up the call to launch encampments in solidarity with Gaza, has urged faculty, academic workers, and graduate students to join the students by “withholding their labor from institutions that are invested in genocide,” taking up a grading strike. “Your historical mission has never been clearer. Answer the call! Join the encampments! STRIKE!”
In many universities, faculty members have bravely defended their students staging encampments, with many being arrested and brutalized alongside them. Videos have circulated on social media of professors being slammed onto the concrete ground while standing in solidarity with students.
On April 29, after Columbia University gave students until 2 pm to vacate their encampment or else be evicted from student housing and suspended, faculty formed a human chain around the encampment to protect students. Due to a mass turnout of student, faculty, and community support, students were able to defy the administration’s deadline and remain in the encampment. Faculty have been playing a key role in protecting the camp from Zionist agitators and counter protesters as well as police at Columbia.
Students staging encampments have also come under threat by Zionists, who are able to stage massive rallies without the same level of police repression faced by pro-Palestine activists. This includes a large rally of Zionists at the University of California – Los Angeles on April 28, resulting in violent altercations and racist remarks made by right-wing Zionists to Black protesters. Student organizers also claim that Zionists dropped a backpack full of mice outside of their encampment.
According to National SJP, snipers have been deployed at campuses against students including Indiana University Bloomington, where the university sent a SWAT team “armed with tear gas, armored vehicles, riot gear, and assault rifles,” as well as escorting snipers onto campus to target students staging an encampment. However, following a massive outpouring of community support, police were successfully pushed out of the encampment. Snipers were also seen near the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Ohio State University on April 26.
Students also are standing defiant against repression at the University of Texas – Austin, where last week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott deployed state troopers against students staging a Gaza Solidarity Encampment. On April 29, troopers were once again sent to campus where they have attempted to make arrests but are thus far successfully being deterred by students and supporters, despite troopers pepper spraying students.
Students at the Gaza Solidarity Encampments in the US and around the world continue to shed light on the genocide in Gaza, which completes 205 days today. Israel continues its aerial attacks against civilians in Rafah and refugee camps in Gaza. According to Palestinian resistance group Hamas, Israelis continue to undermine negotiations for a ceasefire.
“It’s clear from the Israeli paper that they are still insisting on two major issues. They don’t want a complete ceasefire and they are not talking, in a serious way, about the withdrawal from Gaza. In fact, they are still talking about their presence…which means that they will keep continuing [occupying] Gaza,” Senior Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera.
Students around the world have joined the movement for Palestine, including in Tokyo, Turkey, Mexico, Italy, as well as Kuwait, Jordan, and Algeria. There are currently over 100 encampments being staged all over the world.
